On Friday, Penny showed off more than 40 bags of trash he grabbed off a three-mile stretch of road in East County this week to help kick off Caltrans’ “Don’t Trash California” anti-litter campaign. Penny said, for the most part, the items he cleans up have a common theme.
“If you were to empty all of these bags out, they’d all have the same trash in them,” Penny said. “Most of this comes out of the backs of pick-up trucks. Most people don’t litter. They throw trash in the back of their trucks and it blows out.”
A lot of it blows out.
Over the last 10 months, 77,000 bags of trash has been cleared off San Diego County roads at a cost to taxpayers of $1.8 million, according to Laurie Berman, Caltrans’ district director for San Diego and Imperial counties. Interstate 5 is the county’s most littered freeway. State route 78 is a close second, she said.